> Portugal has made attempts to lure back those who emigrated, whether or not they are highly paid or highly skilled.
Yeah, so far those attempts are a joke from professional point of view.
They tend to try to talk to our hearts, handwaving what we would lose in salaries and work conditions from current European locations outside Portugal.
Sentimental and family reasons tend to speak much higher than those offers have done so far.
I can't speak to your experience as a Portuguese person, but Porto really made a mark on me to the point where my half-Portuguese (of Azores descent) and I are considering to make Porto our second home outside of Toronto. Portugal in general feels ready for a wave of tech folk and I'm sure they could recruit back some of the talent that left, made inroads in North American tech, and are able to work remotely back in Portugal.
It's cheap, has excellent architecture, above average food, and absolutely charming people and nature.
I also think Portugal has a great potential on this front.
The climate is relatively good, population is well educated, low crime rates, close to lots of interesting places for tourism. And tax incentives are awesome for remote workers.
I think the only reason I've not moved there is family back home.
If you're considering maintaining homes on two continents, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess the local job market in at least one of those two places doesn't affect you at all.
Yeah, well, we got married fairly recently, so we're actually saving a decent amount of money compared to before we met. Plus we both like pretty small places. Enough room for the cat and for love.
If you’re at the point that you can seriously consider maintaining two homes, across an entire ocean, you are probably far above the sort of financial decisions the average person faces.
How much is a reasonably priced home going for in Portugal now? What are the good areas to buy in? What urban area would be good? What area in the countryside would be good?
I moved to Cascais from UK 5 years ago because of Brexit.
Lisbon area is attracting a huge number of extremely wealthy and successful entrepreneurs and professionals - from US, UK, Scandinavia, Netherlands and Brazil. Tax policy, easy to get work visas, Fantastic Infrastructure and Climate make Portugal an attractive country to move to.
I don’t believe these forecasts of decline.
I am also interested in getting a pulse on the tech scene in Lisbon, to move there as an IC more so than an entrepreneur.
How do you stay up to date on what's happening tech wise in Lisbon? Just contacts in your personal network or are there specific social media, blogs, podcasts, that you can recommend to get a feel for what's happening?
Are salaries for IC's still suffering from a 'near-shore' effect or are salaries just a flat remote rate and there isn't much of a 'local market' arbitrage effect?
I have found it very easy to meet expats here. Having kids in international schools helps and so does having a dog. Amazing how many friends we have from working the dog at Guincho and Carcavelos beaches, also informal events like Cascais Curry Club.
Salaries vary dramatically some low local rates but many Freelancers working remotely at same rate as US or UK.
Lots of IT meetups in Lisbon. Tax is quite favourable for Freelancers 25% deduction combined with NHR regime 20% tax, ie effectively 15%, but you do have to pay social costs. Public healthcare is good for emergencies which you top up with private healthcare which is excellent and remarkably cheap.
Meanwhile many people are getting between 1000 and 1500 euro salaries with an university degree, and living with parents until they manage to marry and get 20 - 40 year credit to pay for the apartment.
Just seeing the amount of IT workers from Brazil (me included) fleeing to Portugal...
It can't compete with the north in wages (especially the kinda-north countries which also have special tax regimes for immigrants), but it's much safer than the other CPLP countries, guess that's the strategy behind the new foreign law ?
I think that, for better or worse, we'll be an important factor in the portuguese demographical and budgetary future
Yeah, so far those attempts are a joke from professional point of view.
They tend to try to talk to our hearts, handwaving what we would lose in salaries and work conditions from current European locations outside Portugal.
Sentimental and family reasons tend to speak much higher than those offers have done so far.